Shoddy maintenance on storm water drains

Detective Constable Elrado Kameel. ABERDEEN — Towards the end of last year, the municipality decided to deepen a concrete paved drain along the side of Grey Street, between Church Street and Brand Street.

Some parts of the drain are covered by concrete slabs, but it would seem that the workers ran out of suitable material at the end of the drain in front of the Methodist church.

It places it appears to have been covered with fencing poles, pieces of corrugated roof sheeting, and even an old steel trestle table top! In December, a removal truck drove across the covered drain to offload furniture, and part of the covering collapsed into the drain.

The main purpose of the side drain next to the road is to deal with run-off water from the road itself and the adjacent properties.

Now that the drain is covered, this is not possible, causing a bigger problem with excess water pooling at the side of the road.

In a related problem, the heavily reinforced precast slabs that have been used in many places where the drains go under the roads have cracked and broken in several places. Apparently workers have attempted to clear the blockages under these drains by breaking part of these slabs, which has proved very difficult The corrugated roof sheeting covering the drain.

due to the steel reinforcement. According to a retired civil engineering technician in town, the silt that collects under the drains should be cleared using a very long handled shovel, pushed through the channel under the slabs.